- Campaigners outraged over removal of trees and shrubs carried out at the Esplanade car park
- JDC say they had relevant Planning permission
- Some Islanders reported seeing dead rabbits in the area
- Developers say they had to cut down trees before March to comply with wildlife law
- Should the States underwrite the finance centre? Have your say below
A CAMPAIGN group say they are outraged by the ‘carnage’ carried out by workmen who have started to clear vegetation on the Esplanade car park.
Workers with diggers and chainsaws moved in on Saturday morning and worked throughout the weekend to remove the trees and shrubs around the perimeter.
The area is being cleared by the States-owned Jersey Development Company to make way for a new finance centre office block – one of six planned for the site.
Dave Cabeldu, spokesman for Save Our Shoreline Jersey, said: ‘These mature, healthy trees were feeding and resting places for up to 50 species of migratory and resident birds, who need these valuable green spaces on the Waterfront.’
He added that dead rabbits had also been seen on the site.
In addition, Mr Cabeldu said, the developers were pre-empting planning approval by starting work before obtaining the required pre-letting tenancy agreements and before the approval of a temporary car parking relocation application.
‘Even if the JDC do have enough pre-let agreements signed to enable them to start work on the building, they should not be steaming ahead and destroying the trees and bushes in the car park without the phasing plans being approved,’ added Mr Cabeldu.
However, in a statement released this morning, the Environment Department said that Planning permission was in place. It issued the following statement:
‘The removal of the trees and shrubs carried out by the States of Jersey Development Company (SoJDC) relates to the planning permission for building no. 4 on the Esplanade Quarter site, which was approved in August 2013. This work is not related to the current planning application for building no. 5 which has not yet been determined.
‘The planning permission for building no. 4 allowed for the construction of a temporary car park (south of the underpass) on which work has commenced, with the full agreement of Planning and Building Services.
‘The recent removal of the trees and shrubs on the Esplanade car park was accepted as part of the planning permission for building no.4. While the department has not agreed final replacement landscape details with SoJDC, it accepts that the removal of the current planting accords with the planning permission.
‘While it has been claimed that some wildlife has been removed from the site the department is not aware of any breaches of the Wildlife (Jersey) Law 2000.’
There were also underlying concerns about the landfill on which the car park was built, Mr Cabeldu added, as it contained asbestos and ash from the old Bellozanne incinerator.
‘It is hugely polluting and would be better left alone.’
St Helier Deputy Jackie Hilton said that she was concerned that work had begun before the building had tenants had signed up.
‘I can understand why people are outraged about this,’ she said. ‘It was a States agreement that nothing should happen until a signed pre-let was in place.
‘This is another example of a decision that was agreed in the States being ignored. They wonder why the Jersey public get upset – it’s because they think people are riding roughshod over them and not listening to what they are saying.’
St Helier resident Marie Jenkins (69), who contacted Deputy Hilton to express her concern, said: ‘I’ve never phoned a Deputy before, but I felt so upset about this. It was a terrible shock to see that they had started the work.
‘The point is that they are doing this without permission. They say we need to look after the birds, but then they start ripping down trees.’
However, the managing director of the Jersey Development Company, Lee Henry, said that the trees had to be cut down before the beginning of March in order to comply with the Conservation of Wildlife Law. ‘We have employed a local ecologist about the timing of the works and we have put up bird boxes in the area,’ he said.
He also denied that there had been any contravention of the Planning rules.
‘We have been in discussion with several prospective tenants and pre-lets will be in place by the secondquarter of this year. We are in final negotiations,’ he said.
- The Jersey Development Companys plans for the Jersey International Finance Centre on the Esplanade car park site include six new buildings.
- Proposals were put forward in December for the third building in the scheme, which the Jersey Development Company described as a clear sign of progress and interest in modern office space
- To date, the organisation has secured planning permission for two large office blocks as well as the underground parking that will form part of the overall plans.
- If approved, the latest plans would provide 69,000 square feet of office space in a building overlooking the roundabout on Route de la Libération.
- Lee Henry, the managing director of the Jersey Development Company said that the latest planning application envisaged outdoor table tennis tables for everyone to use and that future plans would include a café.
- Under the plans, a number of parking spaces have been relocated to unused scrubland near Jardins de la Mer while the work is carried out.
In March last year, Save our Shoreline urged States Members to back the proposition to delay one of the biggest States-led building developments in Jersey’s history.
Save Our Shoreline issued a final plea to all politicians before a debate on whether progress should be halted on the Jersey Development Company’s International Finance Centre, planned for the Esplanade car park.
But Members ultimately rejected the proposition lodged by Senator Alan Breckon, who had called for the six-office development to be delayed until the States had agreed on the final details of the building project.
The remodelling of the site has been in the pipeline for years as part of major changes to what is known as the Esplanade Quarter under a States-agreed masterplan for the area.
It is hoped that the six large buildings – two of which have been granted planning approval along with a 520-space underground car park – will keep Jersey’s finance industry strong by offering a hub for large businesses.
But Save Our Shoreline has been campaigning for more debate about the multi-millionpound project.
In a letter sent to all States Members, Save Our Shoreline chairman Michael du Pré, asked States Members: ‘Would you feel that you were acting responsibly to agree, without having a formal debate, to allowing a high-risk project which will cost in excess of £200 million to go ahead having only seen nicely drawn-up glossy architects’ drawings and having been told that it will bring in millions?
Trevor Darragh: Someone’s head should roll for this. A complete disregard for public opinion yet again. Disgusting rape of OUR Island.
Josephine Landon: This is a disgrace. The wildlife and trees cannot be replaced. And all for a finance centre that Jersey can’t afford, isn’t needed and hasn’t even been approved! It just makes no sense.
Andrew Haire: So with 400 planning objections, someone has still decided to push ahead with the project? Sounds like complete arrogance on someone’s part.
William Jocelyn: What happens when the finance industry leaves Jersey. I guess all these new offices will be turned into flats.
Nicki Maguire: Complete disregard for the whole planning/scrutiny process. Or was it already decided a long time ago, doing it ‘#TheJerseyWay’?
Harry Taylor: This is truly disgraceful. I’m lost for words especially as the pre-lets have not yet been agreed.
Loraine Stewart Scott: Disgraceful…and they wonder why we think this Island is run by back handers.
Paul Bentley: How is this being done before plans are passed? Has all the office space been pre-let? A pre-requisite to the project commencing.
Jeff Hathaway: This is wrong, so very wrong, for all the many reasons others have posted here. A complete disregard for Planning Laws and processes, that from a government quango is utterly shameful and insulting.
Willy Nieuwburg: Where are the waterproof contracts signed by finance tenants the JDC are supposed to have before starting ANY work on this project using tax payer’s money? Is the JDC now a loose cannon and therefore out of control?
Fly Maybe: Must be trying to pull up all the cover before the birds start nesting so they don’t get delayed until after spring.
Jenna Cartwright: What will happen to all the rabbits living there?
Martin Brennan: Why oh why do we need another finance centre. There is plenty of empty office blocks so what do these idiots in the states do build more, but we will be told that Jersey needs this …. NO we don’t! Wasting tax payers money again.
Melanie Luce: Trees are necessary for us all to breath. Yet there appears to be a war against them in Jersey. The only tree left standing soon will be the silly-sited bronze tree by the Radisson. St Helier is literally suffocating under the concrete. I don’t know anyone who wants this development. Apart from the Members of the Chamber is there anyone? At least they have to live with the responsibility of removing what had become a beautiful and peaceful area of St Helier. I thought the Island was committed to environmental issues. Trees are necessary, open spaces needed, concrete isn’t a good alternative.
Sue Rodgers: Probably paid an expert from the UK to come and tell them it should be done, that’s what usually happens isn’t it? Total disregard for the opinions of the people, and the laws that the States put in place themselves.
THE latest episode of the ongoing soap opera about the Jersey International Finance Centre once again pits the tree-huggers against the big bad developers. Or at least that is how the two sides are presented depending on which side of the fence you sit on.
Whether Save our Shoreline like it or not, the reality is that the Jersey Development Company, a States-funded quango with a clear remit to develop the Esplanade car park, have a job to do and they are doing it.
The removal of the trees is part of their brief, agreed by the States, to build office blocks on the site. If anything, this latest episode is about their failure to make a case in advance for removing the vegetation. Not telling anyone was a PR own goal.
The big question is whether the JDC really do have enough signed-up tenants to start building in earnest. If they do not, that is when heads should roll.
